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Red Series: How to Update Firmware With PC Controller (SmartThings)
Red Series: How to Update Firmware With PC Controller (SmartThings)
Eric Maycock avatar
Written by Eric Maycock
Updated over a week ago

Note: These instructions can help you update your firmware if you have SmartThings and want to do the secondary controller method. If you have another hub or you would like to just use PC Controller on its own (without joining it to another network -- standalone mode) then please skip to this step.

Intro

We will be working with two different apps to accomplish this. PC Controller 5.39+ for Windows and the SmartThings app for iOS or Android.


Version 5.39 or above of the Z-Wave PC Controller software is necessary. Older versions do not support the .bin file for the LZW31 & LZW31-SN Dimmers and do not work with the newer .gbl update files for the Z-Wave 700 series devices like the LZW36 Fan + Light.

Please proceed at your own risk. Bricked switches due to user error will not be replaced nor refunded. If you'd like to mail in your switch to have us do it for you, we're happy to do so.

Updating the firmware is a fairly safe & fool proof procedure with Z-Wave. Please double check you are updating the correct device with the appropriate model number. Do not interrupt power to the device while the update is taking place.

Firmware Files

All of our device firmware files can be found here:

Here is the latest file for the Red Series 2-1 Switch (VZW31-SN):

Steps

Adding the Z-Wave Stick as a Secondary Controller

First, start the device inclusion process in the SmartThings app by tapping on the + button, then "By device type", and "Generic Z-Wave Device".

Go through the options until the hub is searching for a device.

In the PC Controller PC app, click on "Network Management" and then "Classic Learn Mode". This will start the inclusion process between the controller and SmartThings.

At some point the PC Controller software should present you with a DSK to use in SmartThings. With this screen up wait until the SmartThings app pops up with a QR code camera scanner. Tap on "Manual Setup" and enter the 5 digit DSK into the SmartThings app. This step is important as it will grant your controller S2 security keys that will be necessary to communicate with the device if it is included via S2.

Finding the node in PC Controller

If you find the device in the SmartThings IDE it will have a "Device Network Id" listed. This ID is in Hexadecimal format. The Id listed in PC Controller is in Decimal format. To identify the node that you want to perform the update on you will need to convert the "Device Network Id" in SmartThings to a decimal number to correctly identify it. You can do use an online calculator or chart. For example, here is a conversion tool:

So find the device in the SmartThings IDE and copy its "Device Network Id" and paste it into the calculator. For example, the ID for my device shown below is C4. If I put C4 into the calculator and hit "Convert" it shows the decimal version of this ID as 196. This is the node that I need to find in the PC Controller software.

Identify the Node

Note: If just using PC Controller in standalone mode (as mentioned at the beginning of the article) click on the "Add" button and join the Inovelli device to your network. Then, proceed with the following steps with the newly added Inovelli device node.

Select the Inovelli device in "Network Management" and click on the "Node Info" button. This will probe the network to find out which device security the node is using (if any). You may see the listing of the device change so that it has "[S0]" or "[S2]" in front of it.

Performing the Update

After getting the node info click on the "OTA" button. It is the upward pointing arrow on the left sidebar of the window.

If updating a device like the Fan + Light, make sure you select the root device and not the endpoint devices. The endpoint devices are the ones with the little arrows next to them.

With the Inovelli device selected, click on the "Get" button. With the controller included into the network with the correct security keys and with the node information retrieved on the Inovelli device you should see the text fields populate with the current firmware information for the device.

Click on the Firmware Update "folder" icon to select the correct file for your device.

If updating the Holtek .bin file for the LZW31 or LZW31-SN (Red & Black dimmer) (target 1), you will need to select the "file type" drop down menu and select "All Files (*.*)" in order to see the .bin file.

Click on the desired "Firmware Target" (usually 0), and then click on the "Update" button.

The LZW31 & LZW31-SN (Red & Black dimmer) have a target 0 & a target 1. In the firmware document it states that the Z-wave .otz file is for target 0 and the Holtek .bin file is for target 1. Make sure you choose the correct target with the correct file.

After updating the .otz file on the LZW31 & LZW31-SN (Red & Black dimmer) wait for the device to reboot and initialize before updating the .bin file. Waiting for about 1 minute should be sufficient.

The progress should be displayed and after several minutes the device firmware should be updated!

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